John O’Neill
won’t discuss the circumstances surrounding the departure if his predecessor John Story a little more than a week ago. But the controversial exit has all hallmarks of the O’Neill style.

Board discussions about the matter were said to have been robust and straight to the point, both character traits of O’Neill – a man determined to be in charge of whatever he’s involved in.

The acting chairman of
Echo Entertainment
tells the Weekend Financial Review he’ll adopt exactly the same style at the casino group as he has adopted in his almost three decades of corporate leadership positions, spanning eight years as managing director of the State Bank of NSW, two terms as chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union that were interrupted by a stint at Football Federation Australia, and corporate and philanthropic board roles.

“I don’t lack courage," O’Neill says. “I think I’m a good communicator and I always prided myself on that. I think I’m a leader and enabler and surround myself with good people, and I can be quite good at transforming a business through changed management processes."

O’Neill will need those skills to steer Echo through some turbulent waters. On Friday the gaming group flagged a drop in earnings because of weak consumer sentiment, only days after it launched a $454 million capital raising.

The company also has to repair a poisonous relationship with the NSW government after a series of scandals that have plagued it in recent months and raised questions about Echo and the conduct of its chief executive Larry Mullin.

O’Neill also has to deal with large shareholders such as
James Packer
and Malaysian casino tycoon KT Lim.

Packer is keen to establish a high-rollers’ casino not far from The Star at the Barangaroo development.

Company Profile

For his part, O’Neill has described an earlier conversation he had with Packer as “constructive" but he must walk a fine line between having a constructive relationship with Packer and appearing to be too close to the gaming billionaire.

It’s not the first time O’Neill has encountered a Packer. In his book It’s Only a Game, he details visits to Kerry Packer’s office during which he engaged in “wonderfully robust and provocative conversation" with a shoeless Packer about the merits of merging rugby union and league.

O’Neill’s peers say he is up for the challenge of dealing with Packer and other heavy-hitters.

Australian Olympic Committee president
John Coates
, a long-time friend, says: “John doesn’t back down and he doesn’t avoid a fight. He’s not to be underestimated. And he has accumulated excellent contacts both in government and the corporate sector. I think he’s probably more suited to being a chairman than CEO now."

O’Neill is already using his expertise at Echo, having spoken to Packer the day he became acting chairman and organising to meet with NSW government authorities and Echo’s big shareholders.

Harold Mitchell
, the executive chairman of Aegis Media Pacific and chairman of Super Rugby team the Melbourne Rebels, says O’Neill has the ability to make decisions quickly: “When the Rebels needed to be put together [in 2010] and ARU support was required, I picked up the phone to John O’Neill and things happened."

Melbourne businessman
Ron Walker
, an FFA director and former chairman of the Victorian Major Events Company, says: “John is honest, has integrity, is methodical and thinks before he speaks. He’s got a challenge with Echo and casinos are a highly competitive industry, but I think you’ll find he’ll sort out that Sydney casino."

He’s better known in sport but O’Neill stresses he has plenty of corporate acumen from his State Bank days. He had a meteoric rise through the ranks – the youngest CEO in banking when he took charge. Famously, he impressed his boss Nick Whitlam, who spotted him at his desk late one evening, even though O’Neill was only filling in time before rugby training.

The bank had huge bad debts, so O’Neill had to oversee a rapid overhaul that included large staff cuts, a restructure of the balance sheet and exit from corporate and international banking. He considered a management buyout, but the bank was sold to Colonial Mutual in 1994.

At the bank a harder side of O’Neill’s personality emerged. In his book, Naked Among Cannibals, Graham Hand writes: “O’Neill intimidated many of his colleagues. Most of his management team knew two personalities. While one was typical Irish charm, the other was typical Irish temper."

Those traits were a constant part of O’Neill’s first stint at the ARU between 1995 and 2004 that began with the difficult transition to professionalism and peaked with the hosting of a Rugby World Cup in 2003 that left the ARU with a war chest of $35 million.

O’Neill’s first time in rugby was a success on and off the field but it featured plenty of disagreements with the ARU board, and many of its members believed the CEO hogged too much of the limelight.

O’Neill says the antipathy towards him during his first stint at the ARU was scarcely hidden. He stepped down in 2004 and almost immediately took up FFA chairman Frank Lowy’s offer to run football. More success followed: Australia qualified for its first football World Cup for 32 years, the A-League was set up and the organisation joined the Asian Confederation.

O’Neill moved on after the 2006 World Cup, embarking on what he thought would be a career as a company director. He became deputy chairman of STW Communications, a director of Tabcorp and the chairman of Events NSW.

But in 2007, a now financially struggling ARU came calling and O’Neill signed a lucrative deal to become CEO again, eventually keeping only the Tabcorp role that turned into an Echo directorship.

It’s been a roller-coaster ride in rugby since, with an inconsistent national team and critics querying O’Neill’s continued backing of Wallabies coach Robbie Deans.

O’Neill will step down at the end of next year but for now is adamant he can handle the workload of Echo and ARU. “You’ll find throughout my whole career I’ve always had my day job and other chairman or board roles outside," he says. “It’s never been a problem."

He says finding a solution to Echo’s problems is simple enough. Harder is executing the strategy. “Bob Joss at Westpac once told me, the key is executing the strategy," he says. “Most people can come up with what you need to do, but you have to execute it well. I’ve never forgotten that."